DagwoodIII comments on Little secret you weren't taught: Parenting as a concept basically didn't exist before the 1970s. The overwhelming job that we call "parenting" used to be a community effort.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 4 points 7 months ago (5 children)

All kids used to be free range.

Ask anyone born circa 1960.

Pretty much everyone of them will have a 'Stand By Me' type story about travelling alone as a grade school kid.

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[–] 1dalm@lemmy.today [S] -3 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Parents used to buy postage and literally mail their kids across the country.

And people didn't think that was weird.

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[–] David_Eight@lemmy.world 7 points 7 months ago

Kids are allowed to fly without an adult today.

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[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Compared to the conditions in the trains, it wasn't that bad.

Also, the longest distance was about 700 miles, not really cross country.

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[–] 1dalm@lemmy.today [S] -2 points 7 months ago (1 child)

In 1913, 700 miles was practically across the country. That was further away than most adults traveled from their birth town in their lives.

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[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 4 points 7 months ago

Not really. The transcontinental railroad had been around for over fifty years.

Cars were already pretty popular. There were already about 5 million of them out there.

Ocean liners and tourism was available.

The St. Louis Worlds Fair of 1904 got 20 million visitors.

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